The Buffalo Sabres were back at home on Friday night, and lost 5-1 in a rematch with the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Sabres offense looked flat all night, and were only able to record one goal, which came in the third period after the team was already trailing by four.
Further, Buffalo’s defense didn’t look great either, allowing five goals on just 19 shots in the loss.
Goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen allowed all five goals, including three in the opening period, in arguably his worst game of the season.
Buffalo’s special teams didn’t have a great night either. While the penalty kill unit stopped Philadelphia’s power plays, the power play unit couldn’t score again, now making them zero for nine on their last nine attempts.
The lackluster defense, and poor power play unit finally caught up to Buffalo in this one, as the teams two-game winning streak came to an end in a disappointing loss at home.
Recap
1st period
The Flyers wasted little time getting started in this one, as forward Scott Laughton beat Luukkonen just one minute and three seconds into the game.
However, Philadelphia wasn’t done there, as the team scored once again just 30 seconds later, off of forward Louie Belpedio’s first career goal to take a 2-0 lead early.
Philadelphia continued to apply pressure, but the Sabres defense finally started to make stops and give Buffalo’s offense a chance to get them back in the game.
Despite the defenses best efforts, the Sabres offense only had three shots through the first 14 minutes of the period, and Philadelphia’s Travis Konecny would receive a breakaway and beat Luukkonen as the Flyers took a 3-0 lead.
Philadelphia would take this lead into the first intermission, as the Sabres looked to regroup after a rough opening period.
2nd period
Buffalo started the second period with a few chances, but were ultimately stopped by Flyers Ersson.
Philadelphia would then start to gain some momentum, keeping Buffalo’s offense in their own zone for extended periods of time.
Eventually, the Sabres defense would grow tired and late in the period, Flyers Garnet Hathaway would score to extend the Flyers lead even further, this time 4-0.
Buffalo’s offense would again start to receive some chances late, but still couldn’t capitalize as they went to the second intermission down big.
3rd period
The Sabres started the period off with a few quick chances. J.J. Peterka received a good pass across the middle of the ice, but fanned on the shot and Buffalo remained scoreless.
However, shortly after this chance, Sabres forward Henri Jokiharju scored his first goal of the season to make it 4-1.
Buffalo tried to keep up the momentum, but after a few more unsuccessful chances, Philadelphia’s defense started to shut down Buffalo.
The Flyers would finally put the game on ice, with a goal from forward Bobby Brink to make it 5-1 with less than 10 minutes remaining.
Buffalo wouldn’t be able to come back from the large deficit, and would fall 5-1 to the Flyers.
Takeaways
Buffalo lost handily in this one, watching their two-game winning streak get snapped.
Further, the team lost just their second game while wearing their goat head jerseys, moving to 12-2-1 while wearing the black and red.
Buffalo is now 5-6-0, and will have to play better all the way around as they now look ahead to their matchup with the division rival Toronto Maple Leafs, who enter with a 5-3-0 record.
